1. Narrative Poetry:

Focus on the Action: - They have plots in which conflicts arise between characters. - The action rises to its climax, and the conflict is resolved. Keep an Eye on the Characters: - Characters determine action.Consider generalizations and conclusions that may be drawn from your reading. - The truth of this idea transcends the narrative. - The generalization in the poem tells us what the narrative has dramatized concretely. - Think of fables or stories that have a moral.

A. "Phoebus and Boreas" by La Fontaine, translated by Marianne MooreB. "The Stone," by Wilfrid Wilson GibsonC. "The Fox and the Woodcutter," by Aesop, translated by Denison B. HullD. "A Poison Tree," by William Blake

2. Lyric Poetry

Focus on EmotionListen for the poet's voice - Images, comparisons, and word choice, as well as rhythmic and musical language all come together to express the sound of the poet's emotion. Consider conclusions and generalizations

A. "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," by William WordsworthB. The Crazy Woman," by Gwendolyn BrooksC. "Hope," by Lisel Mueller

3. Tone

Tone is the attitude of the writer towards his or her subject. Tone may be stated or implied. Tone may be revealed by the author's word choice and arrangement of ideas, events, and descriptions. Tone Poems: "To Julia de Burgos," by Julia de Burgos "The Street," by Octavio Paz "Ordinance on Lining Up," by Naomi Lazzard

"The Street"

by Octavio PazHere is a long and silent street.I walk in blackness and I stumble and falland rise, and I walk blind, my feettrampling the silent stones and the dry leaves.Someone behind me also tramples, stones, leaves:if I slow down, he slows;if I run, he runs I turn : nobody.Everything dark and doorless,only my steps aware of me,I turning and turning among these cornerswhich lead forever to the streetwhere nobody waits for, nobody follows me,where I pursue a man who stumblesand rises and says when he sees me : nobody.

Comment on "The Street"

Try to read this poem as a dream, with the speaker encountering the kind of unreal world we all encounter in our dreams - especially dreams that frighten us. The speaker of the poem is both the pursuer and the pursued. The maze of streets, without escape, represents an unbearable situation, mental entanglement, or emotional strain for which the speaker can find no exit. In first being pursued by himself, and then later becoming the pursuer pursuing himself, the speaker appears to be divided or torn within. He is uncertain of his identity, his direction, and his purpose. In this state of uncertainty, the speaker may be seen to stand for modern humanity, filled with fear and anxiety as to the nature of the self and the meaning of life.

"Ordinance of Lining Up"

by Naomi Lazard A line will form to the right and one to the left. You must join one of them. After careful consideration, choose the line you are most attracted to; stand at the end of it. Both lines are serpentine. However, if you look closely you will see subtle differences. The one to the right moves more quickly, the left line at a more leisurely pace, which may prove beneficial to certain dispositions.

Try to see where the lines go; this is your option. Everything possible is being done to protect your privileges. A factor to keep in mind: in joining the line to the right you will end life as a beggar. If you decide on the line to the left everything you believe will become nonsense. You will be spending a great deal of time on whichever one you choose. Choose wisely. No changing from one line to the other once you have joined. Common sense will tell you that you will become an indispensable link in the line of your choice. Good luck to you.

Tone & "The Ordinance of Lining Up"

okay, so: - What would you say the tone of the poem is? - What manner of speaking, or tone of voice shows that it sets forth an ordinance? - What are the differences between two lines?

There are three main subjects that the speaker is reacting to: - Limited Choices - Arbitrary Orders - Inflexible RulesFor your assignment, focus on the speaker's attitude toward one of these subjects.

4. Imagery

Imagery is the use of concrete details or creating images that appeal to the five senses.

By appealing to a reader's senses, a writer can more easily communicate an experience.

After reading a poem that utilizes imagery, it is almost if the reader has the same experience as the author.

The reader can imagine exactly how that experience felt, because it was so carefully detailed in the poem. Imagery Poems: "Improved Farm Land," by Carl Sandburg"Water Picture," by May Swenson"The Red Wheelbarrow," by William Carlos Williams

"Water Picture,"

by May Swenson

In the pond in the park all things are doubled:Long buildings hang and wriggle gently. Chimneys are bent legs bouncing on clouds below. A flag wags like a fishhook down there in the sky.

The arched stone bridge is an eye, with underlid in the water. In its lens dip crinkled heads with hats that don't fall off. Dogs go by, barking on their backs. A baby, taken to feed the ducks, dangles upside-down, a pink balloon for a buoy.

Treetops deploy a haze of cherry bloom for roots, where birds coast belly-up in the glass bowl of a hill; from its bottom a bunch of peanut-munching children is suspended by their sneakers, waveringly.

A swan, with twin necks forming the figure 3, steers between two dimpled towers doubled. Fondly hissing, she kisses herself, and all the scene is troubled:water-windows splinter, tree-limbs tangle, the bridge folds like a fan.

About the Poem

In "Water Picture," the reader experiences a new and distorted view of the world.

Everything that was usual and expected now is seen with magical distortion.

There are two worlds here: - The perfect, serene day at the park - a mystical world where chimneys are personified as bouncing on clouds and children swing happily by their sneakers. This second world is so unpredictable that a swans kiss sends it folding and changing once again.

The experience here, is the experience of a new perspective. A mind boggling and wonderland-like view that is fascinating and kinetic.

5. Figurative Language

Figurative language is when a writer uses word that imply a meaning beyond what the words themselves literally or usually mean. It adds beauty, suggestion, it creates comparisons, vitality, and increases the impact of the intended meaning. Figurative Language utilizes:- Simile: a comparison between two things using like or as - "He plays like an animal!" - Actually, no. He probably plays much better than any animal attempting to play a sport. The meaning is not literal. Instead, the meaning is that "he" has certain attributes of an animal such as tenacity or aggressiveness. - Metaphor: a comparison between two things without using like or as - "That car is a tin can." - The vehicle is not an over sized soda can on wheels, but the metaphor implies that the similarities are that it is light, cheap, and easily crushed. - Personification: a figure of speech when human attributes are given to non-humans, such as: animals, objects, or ideas. - "The wind screamed and all the trees could do was groan in reply." - Neither the wind nor the trees have vocal cords, but the human vocal characteristics help portray the sounds they make during a storm. - Hyperbole: it is also a figure of speech, and it uses great exaggeration to emphasize strong feeling and to create a satiric, comical, or sentimental effect. - "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!" - There is no physical way all the meat on a horse can fit in your belly in one sitting. - "I'm so embarrassed that I could die!" - Dying of embarrassment is still not a medical disease. - "This day will never end!"Figurative Language Poems: "Those Winter Sundays," by Robert Hayden "Harlem," by Langston Hughes "Afterglow," by Jorge Luis Borges "Sunset," by Oswald Mbuyiseni MtshaliSunsetby Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali

The sun spun like a tossed coin. It whirled on the azure sky, it clattered into the horizon, it clicked in the slot,and neon-lights popped and blinked "Time expired," as on a parking meter..

6. Rhyme, Rhythm, and Patterns

Quiz Literary Terms:- Rhyme: Words having the same sound in their stressed syllables - Rhyming gives the poem a musical quality (all song lyrics have a rhyme scheme). - Rhyme Scheme: a pattern of end rhymes, meaning the the last word of the line will rhyme with another line dependent on the pattern the poet chooses. - Rhyming helps emphasize important words and unify the poem. - Rhythm:an arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables - gives the poem a musical quality. Think clapping to a song, you clap on the stressed syllables. Also, think about swimming in the ocean: if you swim past where the waves break, you are floating when a wave is rolling by (think of the stressed syllables) and your feet are on the sand in between waves (think of the unstressed syllables). - Alliteration: a repetition of sound - See "Sonnet 65" by William Shakespeare - "Since brass, or stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea / But sad mortality o'er-sways their power" (1-2). - Notice the repetition of the "or" sound. The sound pattern "nor boundless sea" is also a repeated in "mortality."- Consonance: a repetition of consonant sounds - See "A Round Shape Water Takes Inside a Gourd" by Nguyen Trai - "For good or ill, all fit some frame or mold" (2). - The "f" sound is repeated. - Assonance:a repetition of vowel sounds - See "On the Grasshopper and the Cricket" by John Keats - "He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed" (8). - The "e" sound is repeated throughout the line.- Onomatopoeia: when a word reflects the sound that it makes - See "In an Iridescent Time" by Ruth Stone - "Under the apple trees, sweet rub-a-dub" (3). -"Rub-a-dub" mimics the sound of the washing that is being described in the poem.

English or Shakespearean Sonnet

William Shakespeare reinvented the sonnet form. He continued to use 14 lines of iambic pentameter, but he presented the argument and solution differently.

Part 1 = 12 Lines - These 12 lines were broken into 3 Quatrains (groups of 4 lines). - Each quatrain would give a variation of the problem. Part 2: 2 Lines - These two lines are called a Couplet. - The Couplet would deliver the answer or solution. Rhyme Scheme: Shakespeare used end rhyme to help distinguish each quatrain and couplet. A new quatrain resulted in two newly rhymed sounds. The couplet then shared the same ending sound. - ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Italian or Petrarchian Sonnet

Petrarch was credited with creating the sonnet's poetic form during the Renaissance in Italy. Any sonnets that comply to this strict format are considered Italian or Petrarchian sonnets.

- 14 lines and each line had 5 beats (pairs of stressed and
unstressed syllables).2 Parts: Problem or Argument &
Conclusion Part 1 = 8 Lines - The 8 lines are called an Octet. - The Octet poses the problem Part 2 = 6 Lines - The 6 lines are called a Sestet. - The Sestet offer a resolution or solution to the problem. Rhyme Scheme: Petrarch distinguished between the octet and the sestet by using repeating schemes for each. The Octet has its own pattern, as does the sestet. - ABBA ABBA DEF DEF

Free Verse: it is unconcerned with a set rhythm or rhyme scheme, and the lines have no pattern of length. "By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame" by Walt WhitmanBy the bivouac's fitful flame,A procession winding around me, solemn and sweet and slow--butfirst I note,The tents of the sleeping army, the fields' and woods' dim outline,The darkness lit by spots of kindled fire, the silence,Like a phantom far or near an occasional figure moving,The shrubs and trees, (as I lift my eyes they seem to be stealthilywatching me,)While wind in procession thoughts, O tender and wondrous thoughts,Of life and death, of home and the past and loved, and of those thatare far away;A solemn and slow procession there as I sit on the ground,By the bivouac's fitful flame. This scene of an army camp is set during the Civil War. War requires complete order and structure. This army, at all waking hours, is ordered by rules, protocols, hierarchy, formations, and order. But at this moment, as the camp sleeps, and the fires die down, a soldier has a chance to allow his thought reprieve from all the order. The free verse of the poem mimics the freedom of the soldier's thoughts and memories. For a short while, the ordered soldier can be a mere man. Just like this soldier is escaping the constricting structure or war, the poem escapes from the confines or rhythm and rhyme.HaikuHaiku is the shortest form of Japanese poetry, and it follows a very strict pattern: Seventeen syllables, divided into three lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Haiku poetry places two elements together, and links them only by implication. It is up to the reader to interpret that implication. The focus on imagery helps the poet to strip language down to it's barest and most precise state. The poet depends on the reader to make the connection between the two images based on the very specific clues. Just like the meaning of the poem is implied, the emotion of the poem is also stated indirectly through the chosen images and in the order they are arranged.

Edgar Lee Masters: Spoon River Anthology

Edgar Lee Masters portrays life in small town America through the voices of the dead. Spoon River is a fictional town made up of fictional people. The inhabitants tell about themselves in short poems. From their testimonies, readers learn of relationships between townsfolk, old arguments, and perspectives on life and death.

"Cooney Potter"I
inherited forty acres from my FatherAnd, by working my wife, my two
sons and two daughtersFrom dawn to dusk, I acquiredA thousand
acres. But not content,Wishing to own two thousand acres,I
bustled through the years with axe and plow,Toiling, denying myself,
my wife, my sons, my daughters.Squire Higbee wrongs me to sayThat
I died from smoking Red Eagle cigars.Eating hot pie and gulping
coffeeDuring the scorching hours of harvest timeBrought me here
ere I had reached my sixtieth year.

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson doesn't seem to have done much in her life, yet she gives some of the most concrete images to the most abstract ideas in her poetry. For a poet who only had 10 of her 1,750 poems published during her lifetime, she is one of the most well known American female poets.

Poems Covered in Class: "Hope is a thing with Feathers" "The Grass So Little Has to Do" "What Mystery Pervades a Well!" "A Thought Went Up My Mind To-day"

"Hope is a Thing with Feathers"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Notice: Extended Metaphor - Hope is being compared to a singing bird in the soul. The comparison extends through the poem as she continues to refer to the bird's resilience in different situations. - Hope, or the bird's song, is sweetest and most appreciated in the middle of a storm, which stands for hard times in a person's life. Only a really bad storm or experience could discourage hope. - The bird has kept it's chicks warm, but it also refers to the ability of hope to warm the soul in difficult times. - The continuance of hope can be found even in the midst of the worst emotional crisis, and yet it never has to be sustained or supported by the speaker.

Robert Frost

Poems Covered in Class: "The Road Not Taken" "The Exposed Nest" "Neither Out Far Nor In Deep" "Desert Places"